Get to me
by Bookstitch
Summary: Carter comes back from Africa, and everything is ok, for a while. Then the real trauma of what he went through, and the problems of real life, mess everything up. Carby. Chapter Two up!
1. Chapter One

Authors note: Hey ya'll out there in fanfic readers land! Welcome to the very first installment of my fic (yeah! Do a happy dance!) But seriously. I'm happy that you're reading this and I suggest you review because reviews really do make people oh-so-very-happy. I know this chapter is on the short side, but if enough interest is shown I will try to make them longer. Oh, and the song, "Get to me" is by Train, and if you haven't heard it I recommend downloading it, or for those who are more legally minded, buying the CD. It's on "My private nation" and..yeah. Read and Review.  
  
Well an airplane's faster than a Cadillac  
And a whole lot smoother than a camel's back  
But I don't care how you get to me  
Just get to me  
  
"You're back." The words popped out of Abby's sleepy mouth before she even knew she was saying them, before she even woke up enough to see the fuzzy shape sitting on her bed as John Carter. The words that she had woken up with every day for two weeks hoping, even daring to pray, that John would be home and she could say them.  
  
" Yeah, I'm back." So simple. Three little words. Abby stared at John in wonderment, her eyes focusing more and getting used to the dark. She reached out her hand towards him and sat up in her bed. His hand moved towards hers. Fingers latching on to fingers, simple contact, so simple. When had everything gotten so complicated?  
  
John smiled and she could see it reach up into the very corners of his eyes. He held their twined hands up in the air and tilted them this way and that-the same way you would twirl fine wine under the light to see all the pigments it held deep inside.  
  
"It was an....experience." He said, a laugh within his voice, somehow knowing that she wouldn't ask him, but needing to talk it all the same.  
  
"I worried", she said, pulling her own hand out of their grasp and running it down his cheek, "when I didn't hear from you. I know that you probably couldn't have..."  
  
John leaned his head towards Abby's and rested his forehead on her own. She could feel the tension in it, the exhaustion.  
  
"I love you." He said, running his hands down her pajama clad back, "I thought, when I went that maybe I didn't, maybe I couldn't love you anymore, but I still do."  
  
"I love you too." She said looking into his chocolate brown eyes. Puppy dog eyes Maggie had called them, impossible to say no to.  
  
"I want you to know", John said, hesitation catching in his voice, "that I won't do it again. I won't run off like that." Abby stared at him for a moment. Was this really possible? She was tempted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. "It's ok", she said, shifting a little down farther in the bed and taking john with her, "it's not like I haven't done the same thing."  
  
John smiled at her and wrapped his arms further around her. Within minutes she could tell he was asleep. For a Moment she was all settled to go back to dreamland herself and then she remembered something.  
  
"Hey." Abby nudged the sleeping Carter softly with her shoulder. He gave a muffled snort and fell silent. She nudged again, just a little harder this time.  
  
"What?" John asked, eyes wild and body suddenly ridged, startling Abby. She reminded herself that he just came back from a war torn country and stroked his face, trying to calm him down.  
  
"You forgot a good-night kiss." 


	2. Chapter Two

Author's note: First off, a big hug to anyone who reviewed my little fic. It made me feel really good that anyone did, because before this my energy has been spent on Law and Order sillyfic and wasn't sure how good of a dramatic first effort I made. If you liked it then, yeah! Go you! If you didn't but told me you did, then thank for lying to me. It made me feel good, and I promise this will get better.  
  
And I promise that this does have a plot coming up. Things will start to happen soon.  
  
Chapter Two  
  
Parasail or first class mail  
  
Get on the back of a Nightingale  
  
just get to me--I don't care just get to me  
  
Dark green jungle made a stark contrast against the sky. Carter told the little boy, as best he could with the language barrier, to look up while he shifted his dislocated shoulder back in place.  
  
"This will only hurt for a minute I promise." He said, looking at the boy's dark eyes, so dark he could barely make out the pupils. Luka had managed, talking to the boy's mother in broken French, to learn that the boy had fallen out of a tree the week before, and the mother could not find him a doctor because the fighting was to bad to leave the house. In the hospital he would have ordered a dozen tests to check for respiratory infections and blood clots, to make sure the boy hadn't gotten dehydrated in the seven days he was flat on his back while guns fired only inches away from his window. Here, he couldn't even give the kid a dam aspirin.  
  
"In my Crayola box," he said in the calmest voice possible, trying to take the poor kid's mind of what was about to happen, "the color the sky is right now was called Robin's Egg Blue. There was a color called Jungle Green too, but that was more of a green yellow then the color the real jungle is."  
  
The boy's eyes didn't move from his own as he started to pull on the arm, trying hard to make it quick and painless. The mother, not the boy, was the one crying when it slipped back into place.  
  
"Merci monsieur." The mother said, tears falling down her face as she helped her son stand up. Carter rose to his feet, wiped the dirt of his pants and helped her.  
  
"Can you tell her," he asked Luka, sitting only a few feet away helping another victim, "that I was happy to help?"  
  
" IL dit, il était heureux d'aider." Luka told the mother looking up from his patient for only a moment. She nodded to Carter and with the boy, walked back to where the rest of the family was staying.  
  
Carter was still watching when she stepped on the land mine, and then was gone.  
  
"CARTER! CARTER! HELP! YOU HAVE TO HELP US!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Carter twisted in the already tangled sheets on Abby's bed and woke up sweaty and gasping for breath. "What?" He yelled, almost panicked certain that he heard Abby calling his name a few seconds ago. She needed help, he was sure.  
  
Abby came into the room fully dressed and holding a half-eaten apple. "Did you say something?" she asked through a mouthful of granny smith.  
  
Carter stared at her for a moment. She was here, whole. Not blown to pieces by some land mine in Kisangani. Not lying dead in the jungle. He ran his hands through his hair and stared at her for a minute maybe longer. She was ok.  
  
"I--" he said, realizing that this must look like he was crazy, "I just had a dream. I must have talked in my sleep." He smiled with the last words, hoping that she'd let it go easily.  
  
"More like yelled." Abby said, finishing the apple and sitting down with him on the bed. "Are you ok, Carter?"  
  
"I'm fine." He said, picking up her apple free hand and squeezing it, and in doing so glanced at the clock. It read 12:54 P.M. "Do you have a late shift today?" He asked Abby.  
  
"I called in sick." She said throwing the apple core in the wastebasket, and standing up and pulling the window shades open, throwing sunlight into the room.  
  
Carter smiled and stood up. He pulled Abby into a hug from behind and looked out on to the windy city. "For me?" he whispered in her ear.  
  
"Partially for you" she said turning around and wrapping her hands around his neck, "and partially for me."  
  
Carter leaned his head down and kissed Abby softly on the lips, for a moment forgetting his dream. She was ok. Harsh gray urban jungles contrasted with the blue sky. There was no doubt--he was home. 


End file.
